Thursday, September 30, 2010

So, way back in September of 2010 when I started this site, I mentioned that one of my goals was to collect and keep track of my writing projects. I've already been making a lot of progress toward that goal, as I've been able to dig up some of the things I've done, like the column I wrote for the Enemi catalog, which had been sitting in email limbo before I dusted it off and posted it here.

I also went through various notebooks, emails, folders and every other place I could think of and pulled together all of the projects that I have worked on over the past three years. Turns out I have about 30 "in progress" projects that range from vaguely written ideas, to completely finished drafts, to submitted projects on the verge of being published. Now, I've had a pretty good idea of where most of these projects are at, but not all. I've now been able to organize them into spreadsheet, prioritize them, and figure out he next steps for each one. I've also created a system for all future projects to flow through, which is good, since I just added a new project yesterday.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, I can focus on getting ready for next week's New York Comic Con, where I'll be spending time with friends, interviewing a whole bunch of creators, and talking about a lot of the projects on my spreadsheet. Coming out of that show, I'll have a clearer idea of where my writing energies will be focused for the upcoming year.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Back in 2009, I did a short stint as a columnist for a comics distribution catalog from Enemi Entertainment. The publication was like an independent version of "Previews," and the guys at Enemi invited Matt (my Secret Identity co-host) and I to write columns for the catalog. Did I mention it was short-lived? We only ended up writing a couple of columns before the catalog underwent some changes and eventually stopped publication.

Searching through my old files I found the first column I wrote for the catalog, and I've posted it below for you to enjoy.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

With CBR and Secret Identity, I've talked about what I've been doing for the past couple years. Today's subject, Mo Stache, is also something I've been working on for a couple years, but it's just starting to see the light of day.

Mo Stache is a webcomic that my good friend John Cordis and I launched on September 1, 2010. We have been working on it in spurts since 2008, and it's great to finally see it come to life.

Mo Stache is a story about a man named Dave Reynolds, and a mustache named Mo. As the story opens, Dave is leading a pretty normal and boring twenty-something life. All that changes when he wakes up one morning to find he's grown (or so he thinks) a big, bushy mustache overnight. Things take a further turn for the weird when that mustache starts talking to him.

I don't want to spoil too much else right now, but you can see a new page of Mo every week at www.mostachecomic.com. John and I will also be posting some behind the scenes stuff, like scripts, sketches and the like. The picture to your right is the postcard we'll be handing out at this year's New York Comic Con.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Secret Identity is a twice-weekly podcast that I've been doing with my good friend Matt Herring for close to five years now. We have recorded and produced over 250 shows, and for the past 200 or so, we've followed a pretty consistent format. Our first show of the week is very comic-centric. We discuss news and listener feedback, review current comics and look back at old comics each episode. The send show of the week covers, movies, TV, gaming and more, and features a Creator Spotlight segment, where we talk to someone from the comic, movie/TV or gaming industries. All told, we've interviewed well over 200 creators for the show, something we are extremely proud of. You can see a complete list of the people we've interviewed on the About page of our website, http://www.secretidentitypodcast.com/.

Which brings me to the website portion of Secret Identity. For over three years, Matt and I have had a site dedicated to the podcast, where we post news, reviews and interviews related to all areas of geekdom as well. The site started small, but now features new content daily, as well as a forum where listeners hang out and talk about the show, comics, games and just about everything else.

Without Secret Identity, none of the other projects I have worked on would exist. I've met a ton of amazing people because of Secret Identity, and it has created opportunities for me to write that I am very grateful for.

I was actually interviewed about Secret Identity by Bob Heske over at InvestComics.com last year. Here's some excerpts from that interview that better detail what Secret Identity is all about:

Bob Heske: Your website is called "Secret Identity," yet I've just told the world who you are. Does this mean you have to kill me? By the way, how did Secret Identity come about?

Me: Are you kidding me? If I killed you, I'd be robbing the world of your creative talent, and I couldn't have that on my conscience. Not to mention, it's not often anyone wants to interview us, so we're very appreciative.

Secret Identity came about because a Matt and I and another friend of ours used to get together every Friday night during the first season of Battlestar Galactica. When the first season was coming to an end, we were looking for a reason to still hang out on Fridays. I was an avid listener of podcasts at the time, and had been thinking about starting one. So, we decided to start a podcast and talk about the same things we talked about at the comic shop, or whenever else we were hanging out.

Tell us about the co-conspirators behind SI - who the heck are Brian LeTendre and Matt "Matman" Herring? (Whoops, there I go again - blowing your cover!) How do you two divvy up responsibilities?

Matt and I are two very different people who happen to have some very strong common interests. He is an old school comics fan, and has a collection of well over 20,000 books. I am a lifelong gamer, having grown up on the Atari 2600 and Dungeons & Dragons. We're both big movie fans—Matt's a war movie fanatic and I love horror. As I mentioned above, we're both sci-fi fans, and I would say our love of comics and Battlestar Galactica was where our initial bond was made.

What's awesome is that when we first started Secret Identity, Matt and I had not known each other very long. Our relationship has developed along with the podcast over these past 3-plus years. Now we're like an old married couple, which is something the wives like to joke about on a regular basis.

In terms of responsibilities, it's a pretty good split. We alternate updating the website daily, so if I update today, he updates tomorrow. I edit and produce the podcast, which can be time consuming, but I've streamlined the process to a point where it's not too bad. Since I've been doing some freelance writing this past year, Matt has really stepped up and done a ton of creator interviews, which has allowed us to continue to feature a creator interview each week in the podcast. Matt is also a great ambassador for the show, and he's helped form a lot of great relationships for us in the comic community.

Everything else we sort of adjust on the fly. If one of us is sick, if work gets crazy, if there's a vacation—we adjust.

How hard is it running a website and a podcast and posting reviews for DriveThruComics? You also do periodic creator interviews and review games and films. What don't you guys cover ... and how do convince your wives let you get away with having all this fun?

It's extremely difficult, but we love it. We have put out at least one episode of Secret Identity every week for the past 200 weeks in a row. We've never taken a week off. That has only happened because we have very understanding families, and we really enjoy doing it.

On the Drive Thru Comics front, Matt M. McElroy from Drive Thru approached me about writing some reviews, and we cross-promote one another, which is really great for us. What I love the most about Drive Thru is that it's a hotbed of Indie creators, and I get exposed to a ton of books that I wouldn't otherwise come across. When I see one that really stands out, I can use the podcast and our website to highlight the book. That's actually one of the best things about Secret Identity, is we've really connected with the Indie community, and we can be a voice for it.

The most difficult part of whole thing is that after the podcast, website and recording interviews, Matt and I don't have a lot of time left over for marketing. For the past couple years, Matt and I have been very focused on making sure we were producing quality content, both on the website and through the podcast. We kind of had a 'if we build it, they will come” mentality. We're very confident in the quality of Secret Identity, but we know that we need to step up the marketing aspect of what we do in order to attract more listeners.

What's your traffic like for the podcast and on the website? How has it grown during your three-year tenure?

We're still pretty small, but we have a very dedicated group of listeners. We get approximately 400-600 downloads per episode of the podcast, and about half of those people regularly visit the website. That's a big jump from the 11 listeners who checked out the first show we did in 2006. We usually see some spikes around big conventions or when we have big-name interviews.

In addition to the listeners that have stuck with us since the beginning, what's really been surprising is the amount of friends we've made in the comic industry. There's a good bunch of creators that listen to us on a regular basis, and it always blows me away to see someone like Jimmy Palmiotti give us a shout out on twitter, or when we run into someone at a show and they've actually listened to the podcast.

You've recently hit the 200-mark for podcasts. What have you learned doing all these shows, and focusing who have been some of your most entertaining and outrageous guests?

What I've learned is that there are some amazing people in the comic industry, and comic creators are so much more accessible than other industries (gaming, movies/tv, etc.). We are very fortunate to have made some great friends that will remain in our lives long after Secret Identity is done. Here's a quick list of some of our coolest guests:

Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica)--A totally laid back kind of guy, Matt spoke to him when Battlestar was at its height, and before the whole Cylon thing happened with Chief Tyrol.

Jim Salicrup (Papercutz, Marvel)—Every time we interview Jim, we are reminded that he is one of comics' great ambassadors.

Billy Tucci (Shi, Sgt. Rock, Heroes for Hire)--Billy's enthusiasm for what he does is infectious. To hear him talk about Sgt. Rock will bring a tear to your eye.

Joe Caramagna (Marvel letterer, Iron Man and the Armor Wars writer)--One of the hardest working guys in comics, Joe is starting to make a name for himself as a writer.

Kyle Baker (The Bakers, Plastic Man)—A great guy, and always very open and honest about what he thinks.

Bill Rosemann (Marvel editor)--Perhaps my favorite guy to interview. He loves comics more than anyone, and to hear him talk about the cosmic stuff is really fun.

Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms D&D world)--As a huge D&D nerd, I was totally starstruck while interviewing Ed. Truly a legend in the fantasy genre.

It's hard to pick just a few from the over 200 interviews we've featured in the podcast, as they are all interesting. My favorites are always the ones where we get a look at the process behind the product, be it a game, comic, movie or show. I'm a sucker for director commentaries and behind the scenes documentaries, so I love to talk about that stuff with creators.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

I just wrapped up a two-plus year stint as a freelance writer for Comic Book Resources (www.comicbookresources.com), arguably the biggest comic news site in the known universe. For the past year and a half, I headed up the gaming coverage for CBR, coordinating pretty much everything having to do with video games. Working for CBR was the first real freelance job I had, and the experience was invaluable. I had the opportunity to shape the way we covered games, and over the last couple years we developed a great reputation for coverage that focused on talking to the developers and creators behind some of the biggest games of the past few years.

All told, I wrote over 100 articles for CBR. I'm not going to list them all on this site, but you can see each and every one of them by clicking here. I would, however, like to highlight some of the coverage that I'm most proud of, which was the series we did on the "Batman: Arkham Asylum" game in the Spring and Summer of 2009.

We worked closely with the PR team at fortyseven communications, as well as the creators behind "Arkham Asylum" to do a series of articles on the making of the game.

The first article I did in March of 2009 was an interview with developer Rocksteady Studios' Natham Burlow, the producer on "Arkham Asylum." You can read it here.

Next up in April I interviewed writer Paul Dini ("Batman: The Animated Series"), who penned the story for "Arkham Asylum." Read that interview here.

July's article featured an interview with David Hego, the Art Director at developer Rocksteady Studios. Check out that one here.

The final interview I did about the game in August focused on gameplay, and featured an interview with Lead AI Programmer Tim Hanagan. Read that here.

To cap it all off, I reviewed "Batman: Arkham Asylum" when it was released it late August 2009. This was the only game review I wrote during my entire time with CBR, but it seemed appropriate to review the game we had spent so much time covering in the preceding months. You can read the review here.

That series of articles on "Batman: Arkham Asylum" perfectly captures the style of coverage I aimed for during my time at CBR. I am immensely proud of my work there, and you will not find a nicer guy to work for than CBR head Jonah Weiland. I owe him a great deal for giving me a shot, and I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that my good friend Dan Evans put in a good word for me when I first applied to write for CBR.

So why did I leave? Primarily because I was spending so much time on coverage for CBR that I was neglecting all of the other writing projects that I had started. My decision to leave CBR and focus on those projects is the reason that seebrainwrite.com came into being. Let's hope that move works out for the best in the long run.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Hey! It's you! I didn't know you'd be stopping by, so I haven't really cleaned the place up or anything. I've only recently moved in, and there's still so much to do around here. When it's finished though--wow! You are going to be amazed. Trust me.

What's that you ask? What is this place? I'm sorry, I got a little ahead of myself and forgot to tell you what "here" is all about. This place is sort of my home away from my other internet homes--Secret Identity, Comic Book Resources, Drive Thru Comics, etc. It's a place where I'll be collecting some of the articles, interviews and reviews that I've written over the past few years, kind of an easy way for me (and you, if you're interested) to keep track of what I've written

More importantly though, it's a place where I'll be sharing some of my other writing projects, which range from comics to short fiction to a novel I wrote a few years ago that I need to polish and do something with. I have a lot of half-finished scripts, short stories and pitches that have been languishing on my hard drive for the past few years, and even if they never amount to anything, they may at least find a home here.

Through this site, I hope to motivate myself to continue working on my writing skills, as well get feedback from you on what you read here.

So, have a look around, let me know what you think, and thanks for stopping by!